Former New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O’Brien has called a private meeting of conservative House members and activists Wednesday night to discuss finding a candidate to mount a campaign to “replace Kelly Ayotte with a conservative Republican.”

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A “Dear Colleagues” email by O’Brien circulated on Sunday and obtained by WMUR.com from sources, says, “It is apparent that whatever conservative instincts Kelly Ayotte may have once claimed have long departed her over the past five years she has spent in Washington.”

The subject of his email is: “Confidential Meeting to Discuss the Upcoming U.S. Senate Primary.” The meeting had been intended to be secret.

Ayotte declined to comment on the meeting and criticism by O'Brien, told WMUR on Monday: “I’m focusing every day on serving the people of New Hampshire, working as hard as I can to solve problems on their behalf to get things done, and that’s really my biggest worry or concern.”

O’Brien has criticized Ayotte since the spring and has called for what he considers a true conservative “of character” to challenge her in a GOP primary next year. But he has said that he would not be the one to do so.

That has now changed.

O'Brien, confirming the meeting in an interview, that while the meeting is not focused on him possibly running, if he is asked to run by the group, he would no longer rule it out.

“Quite frankly, I don’t, at this point, look at it as a goal for me running for this seat, but it is an important goal for New Hampshire to be able to provide a conservative alternative,” O’Brien said.

O'Brien announced in July he will not seek a sixth term in the New Hampshire House, but said at that time he intended to focus on his recently purchased cybersecurity business. He had previously considered running for the 2nd District U.S. House seat, but decided against it.

In the weekend email, O’Brien cited Ayotte’s recent decision to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which O’Brien called, “Obama’s goal of double or tripling the electricity costs of Americans by essentially outlawing coal-fired generating plants, all in pursuit of solving the fiction of anthropogenic global warming.

“And this past week she joined all the Democrats and a minority of the Republican Senate conference to pass a fantastically irresponsible budget, the worse budget we have had in almost 20 years, save for the TARP program itself,” O’Brien wrote.

“Both publicly and in private, people have asked me to run,” O’Brien wrote. “I know they have asked some others of you as well.

“I have spoken with many of you, including some of you considering running, and I have found that we are one with our goal and that goal is to replace Kelly Ayotte with a conservative Republican. I have also heard from you that we all recognize that we will need to focus on one candidate to do that. More than one opponent to her will dilute what is a majority Republican opposition to her abandonment of Republican principles.”

O’Brien is inviting conservatives “to discuss how we go about achieving that goal” at a meeting at the House Republican Majority Caucus office across North Main Street from the State House in Concord on Wednesday evening.

“This is not a meeting of an exploratory committee or an announcement of a decision to run,” O’Brien wrote. “It is my commitment, however – and I would ask it to be yours – that we use the meeting to start the process of replacing Kelly Ayotte by having a Republican win the upcoming Senate primary.”

In the spring, after a member of Ayotte's senate staff was arrested in connection with a prostitution sting, O’Brien wrote on Facebook that Ayotte was exhibiting poor instincts for backing legislation combating human trafficking while failing to condemn the staffer, who resigned.

And when Ayotte voted to confirm Obama nominee Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General, O’Brien again criticized Ayotte, asking on Facebook, “What is the difference between having a (Democrat) Jeanne Shaheen and a Kelly Ayotte in the Senate?”

O’Brien stressed in the Monday interview with WMUR.com that the meeting, which he said he expects to attract 30 to 40 activists and House members, should not be interpreted to mean that he will be the candidate to take on Ayotte.

“It really isn’t,” he said. “Those who have been invited are individuals, some of whom, like me, have been approached to run and have said they are very disappointed in Sen. Ayotte.

“They thought they had sent a conservative to Washington, and in so many instances, they have been disappointed to the point where they now feel something needs to be done about it."

“There have been a number of things that have been disappointing to a lot of us, not only me,” he said, “such as supporting Loretta Lynch for attorney general and now supporting a measure that will substantially increase the cost of electricity to New Hampshire.

“She signed up for President Obama’s climate change initiative,” O’Brien said. “And then she voted with all the minority Democrats in the Senate to pass the worst budget in 20 years.”

O’Brien recalled that in the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate primary, he supported conservative Ovide Lamontagne, who lost to Ayotte by 1,500 votes. But he noted that after Ayotte won the primary, he was “very supportive of her” in the general election.

“I want to make clear that this is not being done to get publicity for me,” O’Brien again stressed. “This is a very deliberate approach to handling our concerns.”

O’Brien, 64, of Mont Vernon, was speaker from 2011 through 2013 and late last year, ran again for speaker for the 2015-2016 session. After winning the Republican House caucus nomination for the post, he was defeated in the final balloting by fellow Republican Rep. Shawn Jasper, who was supported by the entire Democratic caucus and a small minority of Republicans.

O'Brien was then recognized by the state Republican Party as the House Republican Leader and set up an office near the State House to conduct caucus business.

Meanwhile, Jasper named Rep. Jack Flanagan as House Majority Leader. Flanagan is now exploring a bid for the 2nd District U.S. House seat.

Other potential challengers

Among those being mentioned in conservative circles as potential Ayotte challengers – other than O’Brien himself -- was Lamontagne. But he took himself out of contention in an interview with WMUR.com late Monday. See our report here.

Businessman Andrew Hemingway, who received nearly 40 percent of the vote in the 2014 Republican gubernatorial primary against nominee Walt Havenstein, replied, "No comment," when asked by WMUR.com if he is considering taking on Ayotte.

But Hemingway said the Wednesday meeting will expand on the effort of the conservative 603 Alliance to consolidate support for a single conservative candidate for president. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won the alliance’s caucus on Oct. 17 and was endorsed by the alliance.

O'Brien is one of three New Hampshire Cruz campaign co-chairs. A spokesman for the Cruz campaign declined to comment on O'Brien's role in organizing a challenge to Ayotte, with whom Cruz has clashed in the past while recently calling her a "friend."

Former state Sen. Jim Rubens, who received nearly 25 percent of the vote in the Sept. 2014 Republican U.S. Senate primary, is also being named in conversations as a possible challenger to Ayotte.

Last year, Rubens and former U.S. Bob Smith nearly split the anti-establishment vote and former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown easily won the GOP nomination with about 50 percent.

Rubens on Monday declined to comment on whether he is interested in taking on Ayotte.

But Rubens said he expects to attend the Wednesday meeting.

“I’m very interested in what people are thinking about this. There are some massive issues,” Rubens said.

He pointed out a speech he delivered to the Republican Liberty Caucus in mid-October, in which he said the way to deal with “the purple state stalemate” is to “unite social conservatives, liberty Republicans and populists.”

“We will win, not by blurring differences, not by going purple, but by delivering solutions to our big challenges, solutions that end self-dealing and business as usual corruption in Washington,” Rubens said in the speech.

Meanwhile, Democrats are watching the developments with interest as they accuse Ayotte of being beholden to Republican special interests and appear to be united behind Gov. Maggie Hassan, who announced her U.S. Senate candidacy a month ago.

State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley said in a statement to WMUR.com: "Kelly Ayotte's transparent attempts to re-write her record of voting to make college tuition more expensive, opposing environmental protections for New Hampshire, and voting with the Koch Brothers nearly 90 percent of the time are already starting to cause problems for Ayotte, even in her own party."